A rare Yaozhou russet-streaked brown-glazed foliate bowl, Northern Song dynasty, 11th century. © Christie's Image 2003

The deep rounded sides rising from the tall narrow foot to an everted rim subtly notched to form seven petals, the interior with eight tapering russet streaks, and the exterior with two, all on a coffee-brown glaze thinning in areas and falling in a heavier irregular line on the exterior - 4½in. (11.5cm.) diam. Lot 246. Estimate $6,000 - $8,000. Price Realized $7,768 

Provenance: Carter Fine Art, London 

Property from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Breece III

Notes: Although best known for their superb celadon-glazed stonewares, the Yaozhou kilns also produced outstanding black and brown-glazed wares such as this rare bowl, spiritedly decorated with splashes of rust-brown. Excavations in 1973 at the Huangpu kiln complex in Tongquan, Yaozhou county, revealed shards with rust-brown decoration very similar to that on the present bowl, confirming its exact place of manufacture; see Zhou Zhenxi and Lu Jianguo, 'Yaozhouyao yizhi diaocha fajue xin shouhuo,' Kaogu yu wenwu 3 (1980); p. 56, fig. 2, no. 4. 

A russet-decorated black-glazed bowl of this shape from the Falk Collection was sold in these rooms, 20 September 2001, lot 75, and another bowl of this shape covered in a russet-brown glaze is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji; 10, Yaozhou yao, Shanghai, 1985, no. 37.

CHRISTIE'S. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza